Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will reassess her Department's decision to reduce funding for the development of an AIDS vaccine.

DFID is strongly committed to tackling HIV through the appropriate vehicles but has no plans to reassess funding levels for the development of an AIDS vaccine. In the last 2-3 years there have been some promising and significant scientific advances, but an effective vaccine is still many years away and the science has now moved back to the laboratory. DFID’s comparative advantage does not lie in supporting basic science. The recent award to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative recognises that other agencies, supporting basic scientific research, are better placed to provide support in this area.